Scout Force Alpha
by Astra Galaxy
Summary: No one had left Vault 687 in over 200 years. They would be the first, sent to gather information on an unknown world that even their grandparents had never seen. Yeah, no pressure or anything. (Based in the Fallout universe, but completely non-canon. Takes place in Montana, between the events of FO:NV and FO4. Lesbian romance. Rated M for language and violence.)
1. Chapter 1: Graduate

**A/N:** Hello there. I've been reading fanfiction for about 10 years, but this is my first attempt at writing one. Constructive criticism is very welcome, as my main reason for writing this fic (other than my own personal enjoyment) is to improve my writing.

Although I've been playing Fallout since 3, this fic was inspired by my vault in Fallout Shelter. As such, the vault number and the names of all the vault dwellers come from my own vault. I don't claim to be an expert on Fallout lore (despite having poured hundreds of hours into several of the games) so I apologize for any glaring inaccuracies you may find. Point them out, if you like, and I may try to fix them. Also, I have no plans as of yet to include any known areas or characters in this fic, so if that's a turnoff this is not the fic for you. Enjoy!

 **Warnings:** Strong language, violence, romance between two women (will probably add more depending where the story takes me)

 **Chapter 1: Graduate**

This was it. This was day they'd been preparing for since they were children. Scout Force Alpha, the name given to them by the Overseer, was emblazoned on the banner over their heads. There were others, of course, but they were the first squad that the Overseer felt was ready, and she didn't make any decision lightly. Especially not one so vital to the survival of the vault.

 _So_ , thought Evelyn glumly as she adjusted and readjusted the straps of her pack. _Shouldn't I feel a little more prepared?_ She swallowed thickly and tried to hold back the wave of panic that was threatening to overwhelm her.

They were standing at the head of the meeting hall, her and the other two members of Alpha Squad. They were a small group, but their textbooks had all said that small numbers were essential for an effective scouting force. And, really, books were the only reliable source of information they had on the subject, given that no one had left the vault in over 200 years. They would be the first, sent to gather information on an unknown world that even their grandparents had never seen.

 _Yeah, no pressure or anything._

The Overseer was just beginning her farewell speech. All eyes were trained on her and, as they were standing directly to her left, on them. Evelyn knew she should be standing at attention, but her nerves made her fidget restlessly. A stern look from her father made her still for a moment, but she was soon clenching her fists and shifting her weight from foot to foot, anxiety written all over her face.

A hand settling on her shoulder made her turn her head, and an understanding smile beneath a pair of sparkling blue eyes did the job that nothing else could. Evelyn took a deep breath and nodded, returning the smile weakly. She clasped her hands behind her back, finally standing at attention, and felt the hand retreat as her companion did the same. She could still feel the warmth the hand had left behind, though, and she focused on that to keep her from panicking all over again.

She was damn lucky that Danielle would be there with her every step of the way. She'd never make it through, otherwise. _You wouldn't be going at all if it weren't for Dani,_ said a voice inside her head. She studiously ignored that voice, because it liked to spout all sorts of uncomfortable things at the most inconvenient times. Like, when she was supposed to be listening to the Overseer, for instance.

"-present to you, Vault 687's first ever Scout Force." The Overseer paused while everyone applauded, then raised a hand to both silence the crowd and signal one of them forward. "Noah Frosts," came first.

He was a sturdy young man of about 20, stood at around 6'3", and his blonde hair was cropped close on the sides, but allowed to curl a bit on the top. He gave the assembled dwellers an easy smile that revealed even, white teeth as he stepped toward the Overseer. He was the picture of a Vault Boy made real, and he received a loud cheer from the crowd as the Overseer pinned a small Alpha symbol onto his jumpsuit.

Their suits had been modded with armor from the security force. Not enough to slow them down, but enough to make them feel a little more secure as they went out into the unknown. They'd also been dyed black, something that Evelyn was extremely grateful for. She had no idea what the world looked like out there, but she was hard pressed to imagine the bright blue of a vault jumpsuit fitting in against any of the landscapes she'd seen in her schoolbooks growing up. Except, maybe, a winter scene.

The thought made her nervous again. She'd heard about nuclear winter—but surely the effects of the radiation would have dissipated by now? But they didn't really _know_ that, did they?

Absorbed in the troubling thought, it took her a moment to realize that the Overseer was motioning her forward. Noah gave her a little shove as the Overseer chuckled.

"Evelyn Parker—no need to be nervous," she said goodnaturedly, but her eyes were hard. Evelyn swallowed again and stepped forward obediently. The Overseer put a great deal of importance on ceremony, and Evelyn was acutely aware that she was making a mess of things. She was glad that her blush would be hidden by her caramel colored skin, a blessing bestowed upon her by her mother.

Evelyn was short, and seemed especially so when compared to her squadmates. She was about 5'2", and had a thin, wiry frame that belied her strength. Her hair was black and stick-straight and came to just below her jaw. She tried to smile as Noah had done, but it probably came across as a sort of grimace.

The crowd cheered for her as well, though not as much as they had for Noah, and the Overseer gave her an appraising look as she pinned her Alpha symbol into place. She was sure that the only reason she'd been allowed the privilege of being an Alpha Squad member was that she was the best shot in the vault. (Though, as their instructor was quick to remind them, hitting a moving target within a secure facility was one thing, and fending off something big and hairy that was bearing down on you was another.)

Her test scores didn't hurt either, as she was consistently at the top of the class in both the medical and wilderness survival fields. Public relations, however... well, she'd been explicitly warned that she was to let her squadmates do the talking on the slim chance that there was anyone living up there. She took her place beside Noah again as "Danielle Hardy," was called forward.

She stood at an impressive 5'11", and had a more classically feminine frame than Evelyn. The crowd gave their biggest cheer yet when she stood next to the Overseer, and Danielle beamed. She could light up a room, that one. Her teeth weren't perfect like Noah's, Evelyn mused, in fact she had a sizable gap between her front teeth, but instead of being offputting it was endearing.

 _Everything about Dani is endearing_ , the accursed voice chimed in. Evelyn was once again grateful for her skintone as Dani pulled her dirty blonde ringlets out of the way to provide the Overseer with a place to put her pin. That done, Danielle stepped back and the Overseer turned to the microphone once more.

"The members of Alpha Squad have been training for—"

Once she was certain their part was over, Evelyn tuned out again. She'd heard the speech many times already. The Overseer was a stickler for rehearsals. The applause which marked the end of her speech brought Evelyn out of another bout of anxiety, this time over whether their water rations were really sufficient because, although they were each carrying 2 gallons and a filter that could remove anything down to .02 microns, including radiation, what if they couldn't find a water source?

The Overseer held up a hand to silence the crowd once more, and turned to face the Alpha Squad. This hadn't happened in their rehearsals, and Evelyn had to focus very hard on not fidgeting.

"What each of you has volunteered to do for the good of the vault is truly remarkable, and your bravery is an inspiration to us all. Godspeed."

She shook each of their hands as they stepped down from the small platform, and Evelyn tried to wipe the sweat from her palm as discreetly as she could before it was her turn. She wasn't sure she succeeded, though, because the Overseer gave her the same searching look as before.

Then they were being escorted from the meeting hall and into a small room where their families soon joined them for a last goodbye. Evelyn hugged her two younger siblings, Kyle and Janice, murmuring assurances that she'd see them again soon and trying to ignore the tears in her sister's eyes. She hugged her mother next, and it was harder to ignore the tears there. She gave an extra hard squeeze and another promise of her safe return, then turned to her father. Here she hesitated, because he wasn't really the hugging type, but was saved the decision when he pulled her into his arms for a quick but heartfelt hug.

"Do us all proud, Evie," he said.

"I will," she assured him, and saying the words aloud helped to calm her nerves a little. Their mission was a simple one, reconnaissance, but it was out of necessity. The vault simply couldn't survive for another generation on the supplies they had remaining, so venturing out was the only recourse they had. And, since the one camera outside the door had stopped working about 160 years ago, they had absolutely no idea what they'd find out there. The information that they brought back would be vital for all future excursions, recon or otherwise.

 _Again, no pressure._

Evelyn's eyes flicked to Danielle, who was in an animated discussion with her younger brother, Greg, about the kind of creatures she expected to find outside. Her parents were standing by, chuckling a little, but not enough to completely mask their anxious expressions.

Meanwhile, Noah was glommed onto his girlfriend, Ruth, in a spectacular display of public affection that made everyone within a ten foot radius extremely uncomfortable, especially his parents.

They were given a two minute warning and Evelyn's attention snapped back to her own family. A burning sensation began in the corners of her eyes but she fought it back, refusing to cry in front of everyone, especially her father. She wasn't a helpless little girl anymore. She was representing the entire vault now. She reminded herself of that even as she gave everyone another hug and they exchanged goodbyes and I love yous.

Then she, Dani, and Noah (the latter of which had to be forcibly removed from his girlfriend's face), were being escorted out of the room and through a door none of them had ever been through before, down another hallway, up an elevator, and into a big room with a massive, gear-shaped door that could only lead outside.

Here they were left behind with nervous smiles and good wishes as all but one of the guards retreated back into the elevator. The remaining guard, who seemed to be sweating profusely, waited until the elevator reached the bottom before inserting a holotape into the big, raised control panel in the middle of the room and, after a deep breath, pulling the lever.

There was an unearthly screeching noise as mechanisms that had been unused for hundreds of years roared to life and rolled the door—their greatest protecting force—out of the way.

They stood there in a silence that was almost as deafening as the cacophony that had come before it, and stared... out. It was dark, lit only by the the light flowing from the open door, but the rough floor and walls that could be seen could only be made of stone.

"A cave," Evelyn murmured, and the others glanced at her. She fiddled with her backpack's straps, almost as uncomfortable with their attention as she had been with the entire vault's mere minutes ago. Then it occurred to her that they would need a light, so she reached down and punched a button on her pipboy, which lit up and added a green tinge to everything around them.

Danielle smiled. "Good thinking," she said, and she and Noah lit theirs as well.

Despite this, no one seemed eager to take the first step toward the door. The guard was getting impatient (and had moved from mere fright into the region of terror) and began lecturing them on all of the bacteria they might be letting inside with every moment of hesitation. Evelyn grunted at this, since any damage that could be done would have already been done as soon as the door cracked open.

She felt a hand press against hers and jumped a little in surprise, giving Dani a curious look before taking it. When she looked down she saw that Dani had also taken Noah's hand, which stilled the fluttering that had begun in her gut. Dani gave them both a grin and a reassuring squeeze before taking the first step and basically dragging them along with her.

This was probably why the Overseer had made Dani the head of Alpha squad. Not only was she incredibly charismatic, she just didn't let things get to her. She could be plunked into any situation and she would try her best with a smile on her face, and convince others to do the same. She made it all seem so effortless, which was amazing to Evelyn, who tended to stress over every little thing.

They crossed the threshold that way, hand-in-hand, and experienced the strangeness of the rough, uneven ground and stale air together before letting go. The guard wasted no time pushing the lever back into place, and as they turned to watch the door roll back, cutting off access to what had, until a few moments ago, been their entire world, Evelyn felt a mad desire to jump back inside.

Then she felt Dani's hand in hers again, and turned to see that same understanding smile, and she let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. The door clicked into place, and all was silent again.

"Thanks," she murmured.

Dani squeezed her hand once more. "No problem."

She hadn't grabbed Noah's hand this time, Evelyn noted, and just like that the fluttering was back.

"Smells awful in here," Noah observed.

"Really? I think it's kinda nice. Different," Dani said. She pulled her hand away so that she could touch the wall, and Evelyn allowed herself only a moment of wistfulness before doing the same.

Noah snorted. "You're different."

Evelyn scowled at him, but Dani just laughed.

"This is crazy... can you believe that we're actually _outside_? I mean, I know we've been training for it for years, but..."

Evelyn nodded in agreement. It felt very surreal, standing there in those dark, strange surroundings, without the constant hum of machinery and the whoosh of circulating air. She was beginning to feel very stifled when Noah suggested they move on, and she eagerly agreed.

They moved as a unit, slowly and carefully, with Noah taking point and Evelyn and Danielle bringing up the rear. There was nothing to see for a while, not even any branches in the path for them to puzzle over. Evelyn took a moment to ponder what the ramifications would be if they came to a dead end, but after a bit the ground began to slope upwards, and before they knew it they could see light leaking in from above.

"Is that... sunlight?" Evelyn whispered.

"Quick, turn off your lights," Dani prompted.

Evelyn complied, but Noah gave her a look.

"Why? We're not even out yet, I don't wanna trip over—"

"C'mon, you can see well enough without it now. I want to be surprised," she said with a grin.

Noah muttered something about being surprised he'd been stuck out here with her, but pressed the button to turn off his light anyway. They continued their ascent for a minute more before they reached the opening of the cave. Noah stopped abruptly and the others hurried forward to join him.

The world stretched out in front of them.

The ground was mostly a hodgepodge of brown, tan, and gray tones, but the sky... the sky was so _blue,_ and _so immense._ Evelyn felt a little like she could drown in the vastness of it all, and wished Dani would grab her hand again, but she was too busy taking everything in herself.

"...Shit," Noah breathed.

Evelyn echoed the sentiment internally.

"Everything's dead," he said in a quiet voice.

Evelyn tore her gaze from that endless sky, and the bright yellowish-white circle that was _the sun_ , and examined their surroundings. It was true that, at first glance, it appeared barren. The trees were gnarled and looked as though they'd been dead for... well, about 200 years. But here and there there were bushes with, although not _green_ leaves (like those of the plants that grew in the vault's hydroponic gardens), at least leaves, and she even spotted a couple of flowers struggling to eke out a living in the harsh landscape.

"No... not everything. See the flowers?" she pointed and the others followed her gaze.

"Oh, how pretty!" Dani cooed.

Noah rolled his eyes.

Evelyn shifted uncomfortably, though she knew he didn't mean anything by it. It wasn't that Noah and Dani didn't like each other. They got along just fine. This was just their dynamic. Dani was positive and upbeat, and Noah made cutting remarks which would make Dani laugh, and then Noah would smile because seriously, nobody can hear Dani laughing and not smile. Even the thought of it made the corners of Evelyn's mouth twitch.

It was probably strange, considering Dani was their commanding officer, but the three of them had grown up together. They knew all of each other's annoying habits and mannerisms, had shared good and bad times... they'd gone through _puberty_ together, for God's sake. Any hope for detached professionalism between them was a pipe dream, no matter what the Overseer encouraged. It was almost like they were siblings.

 _So these are just_ sisterly _feelings you have for Dani, huh?_ chimed the voice. Evelyn ignored it. She dearly hoped that if she ignored it for long enough, it would go away. _Funny, that's the same thing you've been hoping about the feelings, isn't it?_

"Oh, shut up," Evelyn mumbled under her breath. The others either didn't notice, or were used to her whispering things to herself. Most likely the latter. She knew she did so more than was probably healthy.

Dani was, again, the first to step outside. They were at the top of a small slope, overlooking a little valley, and she made her way to the bottom of it with the other two following a couple steps behind. Evelyn made sure to open the map on her pipboy, which, although _incredibly_ outdated, had a GPS system that showed your position at all times. She made a mark on the map to show the entrance to their vault, then opened a different feature, one that allowed you to create a new map using the pipboy's own mapping software.

She held her pipboy at chest height and did a slow 360, then checked the results. It had worked well enough, giving a rough, small-scale map of their immediate surroundings, but it would have to be done from higher ground if she wanted a wider viewpoint and more accurate data. She marked the vault's location on the new map as well and, after a bit of searching, she found what she was looking for. There was an outcropping of rocks a ways up the hill to the left. If she stood on the top and did it again, she'd get a much better reading.

She was already on her way up the hill when Noah called after her.

"Hey, you ditching us already, brainiac?"

Evelyn stopped abruptly. She'd completely forgotten protocol. She turned to face them, totally embarrassed, only to see Dani had almost caught up with her already.

"S'not our fault you're so slow, Noah!" she taunted, giving Evelyn a conspiratorial wink.

For the third time that day Evelyn was glad that her blush was invisible.

Noah grumbled and followed after them while Evelyn explained her plan.

"Another good idea, Evie," Dani beamed, and Evelyn walked with a little extra bounce in her step after that.

They made it to the rocks uneventfully, and Evelyn took a moment to snap a branch off of a nearby bush and poke into a few of the crevices before she began climbing. She didn't know if snakes were still a thing, but considering all the warnings about their venom they'd had in survival classes, she thought she'd rather not find out the hard way.

Noah and Dani waited for her down below while she took her reading, which only updated the current map rather than overwriting it completely. She examined the new, much bigger map for a moment before climbing down to rejoin her companions. She didn't have to do big readings like that every time she wanted to update the map, because, if she had the feature activated, it would constantly collect data everywhere she went. Still, it was the best way to get a good chunk of land mapped out without having to do quite so much walking, so she felt it would be worth it to stop every so often and do a scan. She told the others as much, and they agreed, though Noah murmured a bit about how, yeah, they'd all taken the same classes and they knew how to work a pipboy, thank you very much.

Now, the question was, where to first?

They had orders to find the nearest water source, but Evelyn hadn't seen one from up on the rock. What she had seen were some ruins, which piqued everyone's interest, so they decided to head in that direction.

"What kinda ruins are we talking about?" Noah asked as they headed down one slope and up another. "Town? City?"

"Nothing that big. It just looked like a few isolated buildings... maybe a farm?" said Evelyn.

Noah grunted. "Lotta luck they'd have farming in this." He scuffed the hard soil with his boot, sending a cloud of dust in Dani's direction.

"Hey—" she began to protest, but ended up sneezing loudly instead. The sound echoed off of the surrounding hills like a gunshot and they all glanced around nervously.

"...Damn, Hardy, way to tell the whole world we've arrived," said Noah.

Evelyn swatted his shoulder. "As if that wasn't entirely your fault."

Noah opened his mouth to argue (or possibly to concede the point, but Evelyn doubted it), when a loud cracking noise, followed by an unearthly roar made them all freeze.

"I think... we should find some cover," Dani suggested quietly.

Evelyn nodded and did a quick survey of their surroundings. The cave mouth was now several hundred yards behind them, and going for it would put them right out in the open. Not to mention, lead whatever-it-was right to their (still very closed) front door. As it was they were near the crest of a hill with nothing around them but dirt, scrub, and a tree so withered even a child playing hide-and-seek would be hard pressed to choose it.

Evelyn motioned for the others to get down. They did so without complaint because although, technically, she was the low man on the totem-pole, this was exactly the kind of situation that had secured her a spot on their squad. She crept to the top of the hill on all fours, silent as a ghost, as the unmistakable sound of battle began above them. She stiffened when she saw what was causing the disturbance, then backed down the hill impossibly slowly. When she was level with her squadmates again she just shook her head at their questioning looks and motioned for them to follow her as quietly as they could.

They began a slow, circuitous route around the hill, with Evelyn taking point this time. They'd made it a quarter of the way around when two more loud cracking noises split the air—closer, this time. Close enough that they could hear the crumbling that followed. Evelyn was sweating heavily, and her squadmates were following suit as their imaginations ran wild.

When the ruins were in sight, Evelyn steered them in that direction. Her fragile sense of calm and determination lasted until they heard the roar again. From right behind them.

"Run," she whispered.

Noah took off in front—he was the fastest, thanks to his long legs—and made it to the ruins first. Somewhere in the back of her mind (one of the few areas that wasn't focused on moving her legs as fast as humanly possible) Evelyn noted that she'd been right—the building that Noah entered appeared to be a farmhouse. Or, at least, it had been in the distant past. Noah searched for a way up while his squadmates caught up to him. After discovering that the staircase was completely demolished, he waved them over to a place where a mostly-intact table stood under a hole in the ceiling and took turns boosting each of them up. It took their combined efforts to pull him up after them, but they managed.

Evelyn immediately began searching for a way higher up, or at least for something to block the hole. She found an old mattress and Noah helped her to drag it over the hole. That done, they sat quietly at Evelyn's signal and just listened.

When five minutes had passed with no change, Dani decided it was safe to speak, albeit quietly.

"What was it? I didn't want to chance looking."

"Yeah, what the hell just happened?" Noah chimed in.

Evelyn shook her head. The adrenalin was wearing off and she was only just starting to process what she'd seen herself, but she owed them an explanation, so she cleared her throat and began.

"It was... like nothing I've ever seen. The closest thing from our books... you remember that picture book we had in nursery? The one about dinosaurs?"

Noah and Dani shared a look. "...Are you saying we just got chased by a dinosaur?" Noah asked, disbelief dripping from every syllable.

"I'm saying I have no fucking idea _what_ that thing was, but it was big, with these huge horns," she gestured wildly as she spoke. It was a testament to how shaken she was that she swore, and Noah sobered up quickly. "And it looked sort of reptilian, or like... like a demon. And it was fighting something else—something like... I've seen them before in our books, I forget what they're called. They're kind of like a spider, but they have this tail thing that has venom?"

"A scorpion?" Dani supplied. She'd always been interested in animals.

"Yeah! That's it. It was a scorpion. A massive scorpion. Like, at least six feet long. Bigger, with the tail. And covered with a thick carapace—these would've done nothing against it, let alone the dinosaur thing," she said, patting the 10mm pistol that was holstered at her hip. They'd all been issued one, as well as a box of ammunition each. The Overseer had entrusted them with a huge amount of non-renewable resources, and an equally huge responsibility. If they died out here, the vault would be taking an enormous loss.

"Well, shit," said Noah.

That sentiment just kept getting more and more appropriate.

"What're we gonna do? We can't go wandering around when there are things like that out here," Noah said, turning to Dani.

"We can't go back yet," she replied smoothly. "The vault is depending on us. They've given us the best that they have to offer, we owe it to them to do the same."

Evelyn blinked. It wasn't unusual for Dani to do that—seemingly read her mind. It had been like that since they'd been kids. Still, it caught her off guard sometimes.

Noah sighed. "Dammit, Hardy, why d'you gotta be so goddamn noble all the time?"

Dani grinned. "It comes with the position."

"Thank God the Overseer didn't choose me, then."

"She knew no one would want to be on a squad you were in charge of. They'd mutiny in the first ten minutes," Evelyn said. That made Dani laugh, which in turn made Evelyn laugh. Noah joined them when Dani started snorting, and because he was generally a good sport when it came to criticism. Sure, he complained and sniped constantly, but he could take as good as he gave.

It was good to laugh, even if it _was_ in a muffled, desperately-trying-to-hold-it-in-so-that-you-don't-get-mauled-by-whatever-the-hell-that-thing-is-outside kind of way. It dispelled some of the terror that had been clawing at Evelyn's heart, which allowed her to focus. When their laughter died down she really examined their surroundings for the first time. They were on the second floor of a wooden house that was standing remarkably well for its age. That is to say, it was listing enough that if she'd dropped a pen it would've rolled all the way to the crumbling lathe-and-plaster wall to her right, but still, it was standing, which was impressive after 200 years.

"Let's spread out and look around," Dani suggested. "Grab anything that looks useful."

Evelyn thought privately that anything useful would have been scavenged long ago, but then, they didn't know that there was anyone left out here _to_ scavenge, did they? The thought depressed her, so she made her way silently down the sloping hallway and into the first room on the right, where she'd found the mattress before. Dani took the room on the left, and Noah tackled the one where they'd begun.

The room had been a bedroom once. (The mattress had been her first clue.) She navigated around broken glass from the blown-out window and rifled through toys and linens that were covered with dust and rubble. A child's room, then. The thought made her sad for some reason, although logically she knew that whoever it was that had lived here would've been long dead even if there had been no war. Still, she thought as she dusted off a worn, moth-eaten teddy bear, somebody ought to mourn this child who had lived in a world so full of promise and had probably died in horrible circumstances.

The thought was confirmed when Dani appeared in the doorway moments later, a little pale, and announced that she'd found the family.

"They're in there all huddled together—the parents and their kids... I know they're just bones, but..." she shuddered.

Evelyn wanted to reach out and take her hand, to offer the same comfort Dani so readily gave to her, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Instead, she mumbled something about being sorry that Dani had to see that and told her they could search the next room together. There was nothing to find in here but sad memories that didn't belong to her. Dani nodded and they went to the next room on the right, which turned out to be a bathroom.

The toilet was cracked in half, and Evelyn idly wondered how that could even happen when the rest of the room seemed to be intact, but Dani drew her attention when she held up a handful of stimpacks she'd found in the medicine cabinet.

"Score!" she said, beaming. Evelyn nodded enthusiastically. Stimpacks were one of the resources they were running low on in the vault, so the find was especially significant.

The last room, another bedroom, held nothing particularly useful, but Evelyn found one book that wasn't completely destroyed and slipped it into her pack. Dani just smiled at her. Evelyn was well known for being a bookworm, and she'd exhausted the vault's library several years ago. The prospect of some new literature was almost as exciting to her as the stimpacks had been.

They rejoined Noah in the big room and he showed them his finds—a battered magazine on electronics that Evelyn carefully stowed next to her new book, an ancient and highly suspect box of Sugar Bombs, and a bottle of Buffout he'd found in the back corner of a closet.

That done, they sat and decided to hash out a plan. They couldn't go back to the vault, but they couldn't just wander around aimlessly. The sun was creeping higher in the sky. They'd started out of the vault at 6 am, what they had understood to be sunrise, though none of them had ever seen the sun until today. It was now 9, according to Evelyn's pipboy, and it was getting very hot. The prospect of going out into the sweltering heat wasn't pleasant, even if there hadn't been dinosaurs and giant bugs out there.

But they couldn't just sit there and do nothing, Dani insisted, so Evelyn suggested climbing up on the roof to get a better look around them (and to make sure that the dinosaur was really gone). Dani was hesitant, not wanting to draw attention to themselves and wondering about the stability of the roof. Noah flat-out refused, citing his fear of heights. Evelyn vividly remembered the time he'd fallen from the vault's second-floor balcony and broken his arm, so she couldn't fault him. In the end they decided that Evelyn would go, since she was the lightest and most agile of the three.

"Be careful," Dani warned her as she hung halfway out the window. She smiled reassuringly and caught hold of the overhang, first testing it to see if it would hold her weight before letting her legs fall free and pulling herself up. She cautiously made her way up to the peak of the roof, panting now that she was feeling the full brunt of the sun's force, then stopped to take in their surroundings.

The view from up here was great, much better than it had been on the rock, and she took a moment to do a careful 360 scan for her map. It showed an interesting cluster to the east, and she shielded her eyes, wishing she had a pair of the sunglasses she'd seen in one of the movies the vault had on file, as she scoured the landscape in that direction.

A cloud passed over the sun and she saw it: a town. It had to be. There were at least two dozen buildings surrounded by a high wall. The cloud moved and everything reflected the sun at her, barring any further inspection. So they were made from metal, or at least something reflective, unlike the building she was standing on now. The realization excited her, because she'd never seen a metal house in any of the vault's movies. Was it possible that there were survivors? That people had been living on the surface all this time?

She scanned the rest of their surroundings carefully, inhaling sharply when she spotted two dinosaurs to the southwest. They were busy chowing down on the remains of a giant scorpion. There were pieces of other scorpions strewn about, and with a sinking feeling she saw that there were more dinosaurs resting in the shade of a rock nearby. There was a whole nest of the things, apparently. And they just happened to be located right between her squad and their vault.

 **A/N 2: Electric Boogaloo:** There you have it! I do plan to continue, but as I am currently living in rural Tanzania and have dubious internet connection at best, please be patient with me. Also, I happen to be incredibly lazy. Feel free to nag me incessantly (hold on, let's clarify that: nag me incessantly _within reason_ ) if you enjoyed the story. Reviews welcome. Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2: Floodgate

**A/N:** My apologies for the huge delay between chapters. Not off to a great start in that respect. My excuse is, however, a pretty good one; for the past month I've been writing finals, preparing my classes for them, proctoring them, grading them, and generally preparing for the close of this two-year chapter of my own life as a volunteer. I'll be heading back to the US this month, which may or may not mean I'll have more time for writing. Time will tell. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter. It was initially going to be much longer, but I decided to split it because it was getting _too_ long. So, consolation prize for having a short chapter: chapter 3 is almost finished and will probably be published much more quickly than this one.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the people who have reviewed thus far, particularly 1, whose review inspired me to get up in the middle of the night to post this instead of waiting until I had chapter 3 finished. Thank you all, please continue to review.

 **Warnings:** Strong language, violence, romance between two women, some hintings of PTSD.

 **Chapter 2: Floodgate**

Evelyn returned to the others (which was a feat in and of itself) and told them the news. They were as excited as she had been at the prospect of a town, and equally horrified to learn they were cut off from the vault.

"How many?" was the first thing Dani asked.

"I counted five, but there could be more."

"Five... and you think one would be too much for us?"

Evelyn nodded. "Definitely. With the firepower we have now, and without having any experience with these... things," she shook her head. "We'd be slaughtered. We're lucky to be alive now."

Noah blew out a long breath. "Well, ladies, looks like we're fucked."

Dani shot him a look that was tinged with worry.

"Don't say that."

"Yeah, I regretted it as soon as it came out. Lady is definitely the wrong word to describe you."

Evelyn smacked his arm. The words had their desired effect, though, as Dani couldn't help but smile, despite their circumstances. She took a deep breath and nodded.

"Okay, so returning to the vault isn't an option right now—that's fine. We didn't want to go back yet, anyway."

"Yeah, but I _would_ like to go back _someday_ ," Noah griped.

"Right. So we'll have to figure something out. For now, our best option is to try to reach this town. Maybe someone there will be able to help us with these dinosaur things, or they'll have an idea of who can."

"That's assuming that anyone actually lives there and it's not just a burnt-out husk from a hundred years ago."

"Yes. Let's move forward under that assumption."

Dani turned to Evelyn. "Which direction did you say it was in?"

"East. Here, let me show you."

She pulled up the map on her pipboy and the other two huddled around her. Evelyn was acutely aware of how close Dani's face was to hers as she stared at the small screen from over Evelyn's left shoulder. She fervently hoped that Dani couldn't hear how her heart was pounding. Though, even if she could, she would probably chalk it up to anxiety and physical exertion.

"Here?" Dani asked, reaching around Evelyn to point at the same cluster of green, pixellated lines that had drawn her attention on the rooftop. Evelyn nodded rapidly. She could practically feel Dani against her back now. It was as though a thin layer of static electricity lay between them, making all the hairs on her neck and arms stand at attention.

"H-here, let me just transfer the map to yours... that'll be, uh, easier," she said.

 _Easier on your nerves,_ muttered the voice.

Evelyn took a cable from her pipboy and connected it to Dani's. She had to wade through several menu screens before she could perform the transfer, then she disconnected and repeated the process with Noah's pipboy. Soon, everyone was staring at their own screen, and Evelyn's heartbeat was allowed to return to a normal pace.

"Mmm... it's quite far. It will take us at least a few hours to reach," Dani said.

Noah nodded. "Yeah, especially with our packs and the heat. Plus, I dunno about you guys, but I'm not used to these _hill_ things."

"I'm perfectly acclimated, thank you," Evelyn deadpanned. Noah snorted and shoved her shoulder. "Right, that's why you were sweating like a pig when you came inside a second ago."

"You've never even seen a pig. Maybe they don't sweat at all."

Dani cleared her throat, an amused expression quirking her lips. "Fun as this is to listen to, we need to get moving. Packs on. Evie, you take point."

They followed their squad leader's directives without further discussion. Noah and Evelyn removed the mattress as quietly as they could, and Dani poked her head through the hole to make sure there weren't any errant dinosaurs lurking in the corners below. When she was satisfied that they were alone, she dropped down onto the table and then to the floor. Her squadmates were quick to follow, and they were out in formation moments later, moving at a steady, quiet pace.

They continued without stopping for an hour and a half, breathing easier and picking up the pace when they agreed they must be out of dinosaur territory by now. They had moved beyond the hilly region and into more of a flatland. Evelyn was still marveling at the sky that stretched endlessly above, although the relentless sun beating down on them was starting to get to her. Her neck especially was becoming sore, and there was an increasing redness to her companions' fair skin that was concerning. Was this an effect of lingering radiation?

They'd just stopped to rest under a copse of bare trees which were closely-spaced enough that they cast a little area of shade, when they heard voices. Dani held up a hand, signaling for them to stay quiet and out of sight. She shared a significant look with Evelyn, who nodded and raised herself into a crouch, soundlessly moving until she spotted the source of the noise. It came from a group of four men, outfitted in a strange combination of leather and scrap metal which gave the impression of armor without the advantage of offering them any genuine protection. Three of the men were armed with pistols of some kind, while the fourth was swiping at the sparse grass with a rusty machete. They were moving closer on a diagonal course which would bring them within spitting distance of Alpha Squad in short order. Evelyn stayed perfectly still and listened.

"—teen caps between them, can you believe it? What a fuckin' waste of bullets!" said a man wearing what looked to be a cloth sack with eyeholes cut out over his head.

"I dunno, it was pretty fun watchin' em squeal," said the man to his right, whose shirt was splattered with an unpleasant brownish substance that made Evelyn's skin crawl.

The first man gave a harsh, barking laugh. "You're fucked up, man. I thought you was gonna jizz when you finally toasted the old dude," he said. Bloody Shirt frowned.

"Hey, man, whatever gets it hard. No judgment here, right?" said Machete Man. They dissolved into laughter while Bloody Shirt glared, and Evelyn took the opportunity to fall back to the other members of Alpha.

Dani was waiting with her eyebrows raised expectantly. Evelyn held up four fingers. Dani nodded, but still looked questioning. Evelyn pointed to the pistol at her hip and held up three fingers, then held up one finger and made a slashing motion with her hand. Noah butted in on their silent conversation, making a waving motion with his hands that made both women cock their heads in confusion. He sighed noiselessly, then pointed in the direction of the men and smiled exaggeratedly, then pulled a horrible manic expression, finishing up with a shrug. Evelyn nodded in understanding and mimicked the second expression. Dani bit her lip to prevent any stubborn giggles from escaping. Noah elbowed her and shrugged again, obviously seeking direction. Dani considered their predicament.

The men were still headed right toward them and their tree cover wasn't thick enough to conceal them for much longer. Finally, she made a motion that had Evelyn shaking her head vigorously. Dani raised an eyebrow at her, pointing to the small bar above her Alpha symbol that designated her as their squad leader. Evelyn swallowed and lowered her eyes, but quickly raised them again when Dani grasped her shoulder. Her blue eyes shone with reassurance. _Trust me,_ they said. Evelyn's own eyes softened in response and she nodded, moving to comply with Dani's commands.

Dani and Noah stood, leaving their packs behind as they strode to meet the unknown group head-on. Evelyn stayed behind, drawing her weapon and lying prone among the underbrush.

The men with guns raised them as soon as her squadmates came into view, and Evelyn held her breath, training her pistol on the man with the bloodied shirt.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" said Sack Head.

Dani affected an expression of surprise and fear, raising her hands hesitantly. "O-oh my God, Rick, I told you we should've stayed hidden," she said in a carrying whisper.

Noah scoffed. "They're just looking out for themselves, Scarla," he said, turning to the men and raising his hands as well. "Look, we don't want any trouble. We've been wandering around for days—have you got any idea where we could find some water?"

Sack Head turned to look at his companions. "You hear that? They been wanderin' around out here for _days_ without no water."

Machete Man laughed. "I ain't never seen nobody so fuckin' clean in my life. Where the fuck you guys come from?"

"F-from up north," Dani stammered.

Bloody Shirt stepped closer and cocked his pistol. "Interestin', that, seein' as how that's where our camp is and all. You wanna give that another think?"

Noah and Dani both took a step back. "Look, we really don't want trouble..." Noah repeated.

"Looks like you found it anyway," said Machete Man with a grin.

"Wait," said the fourth man, whom Evelyn hadn't heard speak until now. His tone of voice made it clear that he was the one in charge. The others stopped speaking, but didn't lower their weapons. Their leader moved forward, examining Dani and Noah interestedly.

"Those look like vault suits," he mused.

"Hey, yeah! They got them pipthingies, too!"

Bloody Shirt's eyebrows shot up into his greasy hair. "That true?" he said, taking another step forward. The excitement was clear in his voice. "You from a fuckin' vault?"

"I said _wait_ ," said their leader, walking forward and shoving Bloody Shirt to the side. He seemed genuinely affronted by this, but held his tongue.

"Please excuse the... roughness of my companions. It's a rough world out here, you understand."

Dani nodded slowly, still looking apprehensive. Evelyn thought the expression was at least half real by this point.

"It's true that we have a camp to the north. We have water there. Why don't you join us?"

"N-no, I don't think..." Dani began.

"Shh, let's hear them out, Scar," Noah said. "Er, listen, we're open to talking and all, but could you...?" he nodded to the weapons that were still trained on them.

Leader followed his gaze and made a clucking noise with his tongue. "Ah! Of course, of course, where are our manners?" He motioned for his lackeys to lower their weapons. Sack Head and did so readily enough, but Bloody Shirt only did so after Machete Man nudged him. He looked even more incensed to have a fellow grunt pushing him around. Dani and Noah lowered their hands, appearing much more comfortable now that there were no weapons trained on them.

Evelyn watched all of this play out while she remained motionless. She was beginning to worry what she'd do if they _did_ go off with these people. She hadn't been able to communicate the conversation she'd overheard, so she was very nervous that her squadmates didn't know what they were getting themselves into. Sure, she'd gone along with Noah's "cool, or crazy?" pantomime, but she worried that they might think she had based that judgment on appearances alone. Those getups were pretty kooky, after all. Then again, she was probably selling her companions short. They'd had weapons trained on them a second ago—there was no way they would let their guards down so easily.

"Now, Scarla, is it?" Leader asked. Dani nodded. "I assure you there is no need to be alarmed. We're a team of scavengers. It's a... competitive field. There are many dangers out here in the Badlands, and not all of them are radscorpions, if you understand my meaning." Noah hummed his agreement.

Leader smiled. "I'm sure you must be tired and thirsty, and you both have a nasty sunburn. Come with us to our camp. We have shade, a place to rest, water, and food. We can continue our conversation on the way."

Dani and Noah exchanged a look, then Dani nodded. "...Okay."

Evelyn's heart jumped into her throat as they began to walk away. How was she going to follow them without being seen? She didn't want to reveal herself—not only because Dani had told her to stay hidden, but because she knew they were in danger. She was about to stand when she noticed that Bloody Shirt wasn't following the others. He stood with his gun half raised and seemed to be deep in thought.

Sack Head noticed his absence first, looking around for a moment before spotting him a ways behind them. "You comin' man? ...Or didja wanna stop to jack off in the bushes first?"

Machete Man guffawed.

Bloody Shirt seemed to make up his mind. He jogged a little to catch up to them, but as soon as the others turned their backs, he raised his gun and put two bullets into Sack Head's back.

He fell like a rock.

Everyone turned this time, brandishing their weapons, Dani and Noah included.

"What the fuck, man?!" Machete Man shrieked.

"That vault's mine, ya stupid fucks!" Bloody Shirt spat, and he put a bullet into him before anyone could react. Leader began returning fire, missing his first shot but catching Bloody Shirt's shoulder with his second.

Bloody Shirt (who could now be called Blood _ier_ Shirt) turned to the side, barely dodging a third bullet, and sent three back in quick succession. Leader dove to the ground, evading them all.

Meanwhile, Dani and Noah were legging it back toward their copse of trees. Evelyn considered giving them some cover fire, but neither of the "scavengers" seemed to be taking notice of them, so she opted to conserve ammunition. She could only assume that her squadmates had come to the same conclusion.

Leader attempted to fire from the ground but missed. Bloody Shirt smiled as he aimed his pistol with both hands, but he was met with a dull click when he pulled the trigger—his clip was empty. He threw his gun away in disgust, ducking to avoid another shot from Leader. He ran forward two steps and snatched Sack Head's gun from off the ground. Leader was on his knees now, and his next bullet hit its mark, tearing through Bloody Shirt's upper thigh.

He howled in pain but somehow remained standing. Leader was frantically attempting to reload his revolver when Bloody Shirt emptied the fresh gun on him. He took four bullets before he went down.

Bloody Shirt wasted no time turning his gun on Evelyn's squadmates, but she was prepared. Her bullet struck him in the side of the head, and he was dead before he hit the ground.

Everything was strangely quiet after that. Evelyn kept her gun trained on the fallen men, but when they hadn't moved for several minutes she sat up slowly. Dani and Noah were back in the trees now, looking every bit as shell-shocked as Evelyn felt. It had all happened so fast, and now four men were dead.

One of them was dead because of Evelyn.

Her hands shook as she restored the safety on her pistol, but she quelled the tremors through force of will. Now wasn't the time to think about that. Who knew what might be drawn by all that commotion?

Evelyn stood, pulling on her pack and rejoining her squadmates. Dani blinked at her, then gave her a shaky smile.

"...What the _fuck_ ," Noah breathed.

He had such a way with words.

"We have to get out of here," Evelyn said. "Somebody—or something—had to have heard all of that."

Dani took a deep breath. "Yeah. You're right. Let's go. I'll take point this time."

They donned their packs and were off, not looking back at the carnage they left behind them. Unfortunately, it wasn't as easy to put it out of their minds.

After an hour or so of walking, they could finally see the town (or whatever it was) off in the distance. It was another hour before they could make out any details, though they found that the only discernible details were the color and texture of the different pieces of metal that made up the wall Evelyn had seen from afar. The flatland offered them no opportunity to look inside. They did appear to be approaching the back of the town, however, as there were no visible gates.

They stopped about a mile away, both to rest and to formulate a plan. Noah, ever the one to address the elephant in the room, spoke up first.

"So, uh... what happens if this place is just full of people who wanna kill us?"

Dani took a swig from her water bottle, swirling the liquid around in her mouth a few times before swallowing. "Mmm... well, we'll just have to convince them not to."

Noah's lips twitched as he tried—and ultimately failed—to hold back a smirk. "So my mouth's the only thing that's gonna keep me from getting my head blown off? I think I'm in trouble here."

Dani laughed outright. "Yeah, maybe I should do the talking. ...Seriously, Scarla? That's not even a name."

"What? No, that's totally a name."

"It is not! When have you ever heard of someone named Scarla?"

Noah opened his mouth to reply, then shut it again as he thought. "I... must've read it somewhere."

Dani laughed even harder. "Bullshit! What book?"

"I don't remember! But I've definitely heard it before!" he said. Dani just kept laughing. Noah folded his arms and waited for her to finish, rolling his eyes.

"Okay, fine," Dani said when she'd calmed down enough to speak. "Evie's read every book in the vault. Have _you_ ever heard the name Scarla before?" she asked, turning to Evelyn.

Evelyn picked at the brown grass they were sitting on and shrugged one shoulder, unable to meet either of their gazes. Ordinarily she'd have loved this sort of conversation, because Noah was totally pulling this one out of his ass, but she just didn't feel up for it right now. She felt more like crying, or like throwing up.

She'd never seen anyone die before. Now she'd seen it happen four times, and not only that, but...

 _You're a killer._

"...Evie?"

Dani's voice pulled her out of a dark place. She looked up, wiping a cold sweat from her upper lip. She was shaking again. She tried to will it away as she'd done last time, but the adrenaline was gone. Her strength was gone. Her breath caught—and then Dani was there, kneeling in front of her.

"Evie, are you okay?" she asked gently.

"I..." her voice broke, and she cleared her throat before trying again. "Yeah, I'm fine," she said, and the firmness of her own voice surprised her.

She couldn't fall apart now. They still had things to do. The vault was depending on her.

Dani was depending on her.

She finally met Dani's eyes and gave her what she hoped was a reassuring smile. Dani smiled in return, but something in her eyes told Evelyn she wasn't buying it. However, she had the courtesy not to press the issue.

"What, um... what were you saying? I guess I spaced out."

"Hardy says Scarla's not a real name. I swear I've heard it somewhere," said Noah.

Evelyn took a deep draft of her own water before weighing in. "I don't know. It does sound familiar, but it might just be because it sounds like Carla. I think maybe you were mixing up Scarlet and Carla?"

Noah mouthed the names a few times. "...Okay, what the hell, I don't even know anymore. Maybe I did make it up."

Dani giggled. "As long as you can admit it." She took a seat beside Evelyn, and there was a brief silence before she became their serious Alpha Squad leader once again.

"It's very important that we don't mention the vault to anyone."

Evelyn nodded. She'd been thinking about that during their trek. If the mere _possibility_ of a vault had prompted that massacre... there was no telling what people would do if they knew the truth. They had to protect the vault at all costs.

"Yeah, I get what you're saying, and that's all fine and dandy, but it's not like we mentioned it before," said Noah. "They recognized our suits and our pipboys—there's gotta be some other vaults around here, I guess?"

Dani chewed on her thumbnail. It was a habit she had when she was thinking something over. It ordinarily didn't faze Evelyn, but all she could think was how very unclean all of their hands were right now, so she pulled on Dani's elbow to get her to stop. Dani blinked at her, then examined her thumbnail and grimaced. She spat a few times, then rinsed her mouth and spat again.

"Okay, so we have to ditch the jumpsuits," she said finally.

Evelyn imagined wearing one of the leather-and-metal monstrosities they'd seen and squirmed. The vault jumpsuits were all any of them had worn since they were children. They were comfortable, practical, and most of all, familiar. When you'd been thrown into a completely different world, a little familiarity went a long way. But the safety of the vault had to come first, so she took a deep breath and nodded.

"Yeah... pipboys, too."

Noah sighed. "I hate taking off my pipboy. I feel like I'm missing a limb or something."

Dani smiled indulgently. "I know. I hate it too, but..."

"Hold on, we don't _all_ have to give up our pipboys. It's just suspicious that we all have them, right? If it's only one of us we could've found it, or bought it," said Evelyn.

"Yeah, okay, I guess that makes sense," Noah conceded. "So which of us keeps theirs?"

Evelyn shrugged. "Dani's squad leader—and she knows how to work tech the best, anyway."

It was true. Evelyn was confident in her abilities when using her pipboy, but that was because she'd had it since she was a child. Dani, meanwhile, had been working with the vault's computers and other gadgets since the G.O.A.T. had placed her in IT.

Though they'd all been training to become scouts since childhood, they were also obligated to contribute to the daily operation of the vault, and so they'd all been placed into careers by way of the G.O.A.T. examination. Dani had been in IT, Noah was in maintenance, and Evelyn had worked in the infirmary (hence the good scores on her medical tests).

Noah grumbled a little but he agreed in the end. Anyway, it wasn't like they were going to discard their pipboys—they were far too valuable. They just had to keep them hidden. Evelyn wrapped hers in a winter cap (they'd come prepared for whatever climate they might find) and put it in an inner compartment of her pack. It was strange... her arm felt so light and unnatural without it. Noah was right, it was like losing a limb.

Once finished, they turned to Dani again. She smiled at them sympathetically. "Thanks, guys. I really appreciate your willingness to sacrifice for the good of the vault. I know it's not easy."

Noah waved his hand dismissively. "Don't go all sappy on us, Hardy. We all knew what we were signing up for when we came out here. It's not a big deal."

"No, it _is_ a big deal, and I want you to know that I appreciate it. And feel free to borrow my pipboy if you need it... or if you're going through withdrawals," she said with a grin.

"What do you propose we do about our jumpsuits?" Evelyn asked.

"Yeah, I dunno about you guys, but I'm not real keen on leather harnesses and metal shoulder-pads," said Noah.

"I wouldn't say no to a leather harness," Dani mused.

Evelyn was pretty sure everyone could see her intense blush this time, caramel skintone or not.

Dani laughed. "But in all seriousness, I'm not sure what we can do right now. We don't have anything else to wear, so unless we want to sweat our asses off in winter coats or go walking around in our underwear..."

Noah mumbled something that Evelyn didn't catch, but which caused Dani to throw a stick at him. "Shut it, you. Anyway, we'll just have to wear our jumpsuits for a while longer until we can find something else. In the meantime, there will be no mention of the vault outside of our squad, capiche?"

"Aye, aye, cap'n."

 **A/N 2... again:** Sorry, not planning on making a habit of having two notes per chapter, but I feel the need to address something before anyone balks at me. If Alpha Squad seems exceptionally green, it's because they are. They've had training, yes, but they've been trained by civilians who have never been in a real fight for their life. Not only that, but their only interactions up to this point have been within the same tight-knit community of people that they've known since childhood. They've been sheltered, literally and figuratively, their entire lives, and they were raised by people who were as well. Please bear with them as they learn things the hard way. You've got to wise up quickly to survive in the Badlands.


	3. Chapter 3: Commiserate

**A/N:** Whew! Even with splitting the chapter this ended up being a long one... almost as long as the previous two combined! Hopefully it's worth it.

Fair warning, this chapter has some pretty intense gore (not really, when you account for the fact that it's set in the Fallout universe, but pretty intense for ffnet), so much so that I've bumped the rating up to M. ...Which, looking back, I probably should have done for all of the f bombs in chapter 2, but oh well. It's done now. I've also tweaked the teaser to better fit where the story will be going. I confess, I wrote and posted chapter 1 without having any kind of an overall outline for this fic. That has since been remedied, and these changes reflect that.

You may also have noticed that SFA now has cover art! This was drawn by me, badly and with a mouse, (and in improper dimensions, argh!) but hopefully it will help to bring my characters to life just a little bit more. (If you're curious, Noah and Dani are American of European descent, while Evelyn is American of European and Indian descent.)

Lastly, despite the gore this chapter is half fluff, so depending on why you're reading this... sorry/you're welcome?

Let's get started!

 **Warnings:** Strong language, violence, gore, romance between two women, some hintings of PTSD.

 **Chapter 3: Commiserate**

It took them nearly twenty minutes to walk around the perimeter of the town. It was now the full heat of the day, and they were all sweltering, exhausted, and burnt to hell. That's what the leader of those crazies had told them—that they had nasty sunburns. The sun—that big ball of plasma floating 90 million miles away—was so strong that it could burn their skin from that great distance. It was incredible. Painful, but incredible. None of their books had mentioned this phenomenon. It was common knowledge before the war, Evelyn supposed.

Of course, once they had figured it out they tried to take measures to prevent further damage, but apart from getting out of the sun there didn't seem to be much they could do. Evelyn considered putting her hat on, but even if she hadn't used it to cushion her pipboy, the thought of being _more_ restricted was too much for her. She already wanted to tear her jumpsuit off as it was. But her darker skin seemed to be providing her some additional protection somehow, because although she was hotter than she'd ever been in her entire life, the burning sensation hadn't yet progressed past intense discomfort. The others were not so lucky. Noah in particular had turned a brilliant shade of pink and his face had been scrunched in a permanent grimace since they'd returned to walking.

Needless to say, Alpha Squad was looking forward to finding some shade and a place to rest... provided this was a hospitable town.

The gate, when they came to it, was fairly small. Better for defense, Evelyn supposed. It was guarded by a person on either side, each of them inside of their own little guard post that was shielded from the sun. There also seemed to be a sniper's nest above the gate, though it was currently unoccupied. All-in-all it was a pretty good setup. The wall would be nearly impossible to climb or breach without large equipment that would no doubt draw attention and attack, and between the sniper and the guards they would be able to take down any small threats, or raise the alarm on anything larger. The terrain was so flat that you could see miles into the distance, and there were very few trees in this area. Their approach had probably been noted some time ago.

As they drew closer, one of the guards stepped out from her post to greet them. She was wearing a light gray uniform underneath an impressive set of studded leather armor. The ensemble was much more practical than the clothing they had seen thus far, and gave Evelyn hope that they might be able to find some clothing that didn't look like refuse from a junkyard. _Still_ , said the voice, y _ou wouldn't have objected to seeing Dani in a leather harness, would you?_

Evelyn fought off the urge to begin an internal argument. Now wasn't the time.

The guard looked to be in her mid-twenties, only a few years older than Evelyn herself. She was armed with a shotgun, which she held at her side. She wasn't pointing it at them, only making it clear that she wouldn't tolerate any funny business.

"Hi there. Haven't seen you folks around here before. First time?"

"Sure is," Dani said with a smile. "What is this place?"

"Trenton City. Biggest town for miles. Where you guys from?"

"Down south."

The guard nodded. "Thought you might be. NCR, yeah? Don't get a lot of you up this far north."

Dani shook her head. "Sorry, no affiliation with NCR." Whatever that was.

"Oh? I just assumed because of the fancy packs and the matching uniforms... anyway, none of my business, right? You're free to enter the city, but I'll have to hold your weapons here. They'll be returned to you when you leave."

Noah raised his eyebrows but said nothing. Evelyn was equally hesitant to relinquish their protection, but waited for Dani to make the call.

"City policy, huh?" Dani asked.

"Yeah. One of the few unanimous decisions we've made."

"Right... well, I can't say I'm comfortable with it, but rules are rules."

As Dani pulled her gun from its holster, Evelyn observed that the second guard (an older man who didn't look nearly as friendly as his coworker) had his rifle trained on her until she handed it over. Evelyn and Noah followed suit, handing their pistols to the guard without comment.

"I appreciate the cooperation. Most people raise a big stink about it, but it's worked well for us over the years," she said as she unlocked a sturdy-looking metal trunk inside of her guard post and stowed their weapons inside. Once she'd refastened the lock, she walked to the gate and knocked twice. The doors opened inward.

"Welcome to Trenton City. Hope you enjoy yourselves. If you get turned around feel free to ask a guard for directions... the layout can be confusing for first timers."

Dani offered her thanks and the squad made their way through the gates.

Trenton City was laid out in a roughly rectangular shape, surrounded by high walls of metal. Nearly all of the buildings were composed of the same material. Evelyn immediately saw the reason for the guard's words; though the area within the walls was not small, it was very limiting in terms of town growth. The populace had worked around that limitation, choosing to build up rather than out. Buildings were stacked upon buildings, with dozens of walkways interconnecting everything. There were three main levels, with a fourth level that consisted of a walkway that ran the perimeter of the wall. Evelyn's eyes were drawn to a bustling open-air market situated on the second level, above what appeared to be a hospital. There was another building above the market, shielding it from the sun (and presumably from the rain).

Evelyn marveled at the place. It had none of the elegance of the cities from the past that she'd seen in films, but it was sturdy and functional and had a rugged charm. After spending her entire life in the vault's sterile, streamlined environment, there was something about the patchwork nature of the town that fascinated her. Where had they obtained so much metal? How long had it taken them to build this place? It took Dani pulling on her arm to shake her from her thoughts.

"Come on, this guard said he would show us to a place where we can rest."

They were led through the town's cramped ground level, which necessitated their weaving through the many support beams that held up walkways and buildings alike. They passed a section of town that was dedicated to farming, and Evelyn saw some familiar plants growing alongside many that she didn't recognize. The guard stopped outside of a large building that spanned two levels by itself. It was marked with a sign that bore the name "Mercury" and indicated that it was both a restaurant and an inn.

"Best food in town, and the best beds. If you're looking for a drink, Paulman's is up there," the guard said, pointing to a smaller building on the second level.

"Thanks," Noah grunted before leading the way inside.

The ground floor was apparently the restaurant portion of the building, and it consisted of one large room. Instead of being hidden away in the back, the kitchen was located in the center, and though it was surrounded by a counter, it was otherwise completely open. There were a dozen tables of varying sizes dotted around the room, but only two were currently occupied. Dani steered them to a small table situated near the stairs. The reason was obvious; all of the furniture inside the place appeared to be scavenged, and this table had a comfortable looking booth seat on one side. She let out a soft groan as she nearly collapsed onto the worn leather, her eyes fluttering closed in complete relief at being off her feet and out of the sun. Evelyn pulled up a chair as Noah took a seat next to their squad leader.

They rested for a few minutes without speaking, but it wasn't nearly as satisfying as Evelyn had hoped it would be. In fact, she felt _hotter_ now that she was sitting. Sweat was literally dripping down her face. She wiped her brow, and grimaced when she saw that dust and grime had mixed with her sweat, effectively caking her in mud. She heard Dani stifle a laugh and slowly brought her eyes to meet those glittering baby blues.

"Sorry, just—your face," Dani giggled.

"Don't worry, Parker, we'd be just as filthy if we'd been grubbing around in the bushes. ...Thanks for that, by the way," Noah said.

Evelyn dropped her gaze. She didn't want to think about that. She groped for a subject change, and as luck would have it, worries were never far from her mind. She shrugged a shoulder and cleared her throat.

"Hey—what are we gonna do about, y'know, money?"

She could feel Dani scrutinizing her, but she evidently picked up on the fact that Evelyn still wasn't ready to talk about it, so instead she sat up straight and considered the question. "I've been thinking about it. We'll have to try to barter some of our supplies, I think."

"But we only brought essentials," said Noah. "What do we have that we could afford to barter?"

"We—" Dani began, but was interrupted by a man seated at the next table.

"Hey, I, uh, couldn't help overhearin' your dilemma," he said.

Given the hushed tones they'd all been using, Evelyn doubted that very much. She eyed him warily. He was an older man, perhaps in his late fifties. He was thin, and the greasy brown hair she could see peeking out from underneath his fedora was liberally streaked with gray. He looked nice enough, but looks could be deceiving. He offered them a smile.

"I'm Randy. You folks lookin' for a job?"

"...Uh. Thanks, Randy, but I don't think..."

"Got a message I need delivered. Just here in town, nothin' special. Guy lives on the third level, and my knees aren't what they used to be, y'know? I'll pay ya twenty caps. How 'bout it?" he spoke rapidly, cutting Dani off once again.

The squad exchanged hesitant looks. Not only was this suspicious as hell, but what were caps? Evelyn would have asked, but she felt that being unaware of a form of currency (if that was indeed what it was) would probably lead to some uncomfortable questions.

Randy noticed their reluctance and laughed. "Alright, alright, I get it, you drive a hard bargain. Twenty-five caps. Final offer. C'mon, it's not like I'm askin' you to run all the way to Goldenrod, it's just up a couple-a flights of stairs."

"...We'd need to see the money first," Dani said.

Randy raised an eyebrow. "Shrewd girl, huh? I like that. Alright, hold on." He pulled a bulging drawstring pouch from his pants (not from his pocket, Evelyn noted—from his _pants_ ) and shook it so that they heard the clink of metal-against-metal. "Got plenty, y'see? Here, a little taste," he said, reaching inside and flicking something at Dani.

She caught it and held it up, a blank look on her face. It was a bottle cap. Nuka-cola, it looked like, though it was hard to tell with most of the paint worn off. _This_ is what they were using for currency up here?

"So that's twenty- _six_ caps now, just for deliverin' a letter. You game or what?"

Dani still appeared conflicted, but Noah took the decision off of her hands.

"Yeah, okay. Sure. Why not?"

Randy beamed. "My man! Alright, here's the letter—take it up to Manny, on the third level like I said. Guy's a ghoul, real easy to spot. You'll get your money after it's done."

Noah took the folded paper from him and slipped it into his pocket as he stood. Dani was sporting an annoyed expression but she stood, too. Evelyn followed them out the door and toward a set of stairs that led to the second level.

"What the hell, Noah?" Dani huffed.

He held up his hands. "I know, I know, but we need money and it sounded simple enough. I was looking at the prices in there and this'll be enough to get us a couple of rooms tonight. Honestly, you should be thanking me. I don't think you guys want to sleep out in dinosaurville any more than I do."

Evelyn rolled her eyes. "We'll thank you if this guy doesn't end up gutting us or something. What did he say he was? A ghost?"

Dani giggled. "A ghoul, I think. Not that that makes any more sense."

"Maybe it's a gang thing."

They were headed to the third level now, with Noah still taking the lead. He waited for his squadmates at the top, pointedly avoiding looking down. Evelyn considered scaring him a little bit—he'd annoyed Dani, after all, so he deserved it.

"Better not," she muttered to herself. With her luck she'd end up really pushing him over the railing. Dani evidently heard her, because she caught her eye and snickered.

"Okay, so now we just gotta find this Manny guy," Noah said when they'd joined him.

Evelyn looked around. The third level was mostly housing, with the exception of the building above the market, which appeared to be a kind of game parlor. It seemed like the logical place to start, unless they wanted to start knocking on doors. She said as much, and the others agreed.

It was a dingy, dark sort of place, despite being exposed to more sunlight than most of the buildings around (and below) it. The windows were shuttered, and it was smoky inside. Evelyn wrinkled her nose in distaste. She knew of cigarettes from movies, but the vault had either banned them or else the supply had run out years before, so she'd never experienced cigarette smoke firsthand. It was vile, she decided.

"Hm! Smells kinda nice," Noah said.

Of course he would think that.

Evelyn shook her head. "You're crazy."

"Crazy is as crazy does," he replied with a smirk.

"...I don't think that casts you in a better light, exactly," Evelyn muttered, but he was already moving past her, approaching a man that was standing beside a pool table that was not unlike the one they had in their own vault game room, waiting for the woman he was playing with to take her shot.

"Hey, guy, you know where I could find a Manny?"

The guy in question snorted and looked Noah over. "You're an attractive fella. I think you oughta be able to find a man without resorting to asking strangers for help."

Noah blushed (which was an amusing effect given that his face had already been bright pink from the sunburn). "That's... not what I meant."

The man laughed, but cut off abruptly when the woman smacked him in the back of the head. "Don't be a dick," she said, before turning to Noah. "Sorry. He's just messing with ya. Manny lives in the little place two doors down on the right. Should be home right now. Dunno why you'd wanna talk to him, though, guy's a cranky old ghoul if ever there was one. ...Not that there's anything wrong with ghouls," she tacked the addendum on hastily.

They offered their thanks, Noah awkwardly, Evelyn and Dani with big grins, and followed the directions they'd been given.

The woman hadn't been kidding when she'd said it was a little place. The shack was small enough that it must've been a single room affair. Noah took the lead again, knocking on the rusty metal door. They heard a gravelly voice telling them to "hold [their] damn horses," then the clattering of a lock being undone, and then...

They all jerked away from the open door.

"Holy shit! What... are you?" Noah blurted before Dani could hush him.

Manny's face fell (at least, Evelyn thought it did—it was a little hard to tell with all of the missing flesh). He observed them through milky eyes that were sunken into the most grotesque face Evelyn had ever seen. It was like something out of a horror film. No—it was worse. The little flesh that remained was cracked and leathery; the nose was totally gone, replaced by a dark, oozing hole; the exposed muscle was the color of spoiled meat; there was more than a slight odor. His expression grew darker as the squad continued to gape, and then he spoke in the raspiest voice Evelyn had ever heard.

"Oh, boy. This is real fuckin' rich. You guys oughta be a comedy troupe. Show up on a man's doorstop outta the blue, make fun of him for bein' a ghoul... fuckin' hilarious. You know I'm probably six times your age? But that doesn't matter at all, huh, 'cause why bother respecting your elders if they're ghouls, right?" Evelyn was still staring open-mouthed, though now it was for multiple reasons. They'd been on the receiving end of this exact sort of stern talking to before from a few of the vault's older residents. (Dani and Noah had been tricksters in their youth, and Evelyn had, of course, been drug along with them. ...Well, okay, so she'd been the quiet mastermind half the time, but who was keeping track?)

 _You, apparently,_ said the voice, in a rare show of non-Dani-related commentary.

Anyway, it didn't matter now, except here was an eerily similar speech coming from a zombie. What sort of rabbit hole had they managed to fall down?

"You're the kinda fuckers that give smoothskins a bad name. Get outta here before I kick your ass."

He made to slam the door, but Noah stopped it with his boot. "Uh... look, I, uh... I'm... sorry? I really didn't mean to... offend?"

Evelyn wondered if he was aware that all of his statements were coming out as questions.

"No? Well ya did, anyway, buddy. Now fuck off."

He tried to slam the door again, and again Noah stopped him. And Evelyn had thought he was pissed before.

"You got two seconds to get outta my face, Blondie. One," he held up a decaying finger.

"I have something for—" Noah began, reaching into his pocket for the letter, but he wasn't quick enough.

"Two!"

Despite the presumable muscular atrophy, Manny had a good right hook. Noah doubled over, clutching his nose while blood poured from between his fingers and dripped onto hapless passersby below.

"When are assholes like you gonna learn that it's not the 2100s anymore? You can't exile me to Rotterdale, you bigoted piece of shit! I live here! Get over it!" Manny roared.

Evelyn moved to help Noah while Dani snatched the letter from where it had fallen and presented it to the raging ghoul. It took him several seconds to realize she was trying to hand him something (meanwhile, Evelyn was tensed and ready to pounce if he showed any sign of turning on Dani). His assault on Noah must have cooled him off a little, because he took the envelope and tore it open without further comment. As he skimmed the letter, his entire demeanor changed.

"Hey—Randy sent you guys? Why didn'tcha say so?" He guffawed. Noah groaned as Evelyn popped his nose back into place. "That old sonuvvabitch couldn't even drag his ass up here himself, huh? Bet he toldja his knees were aching."

"Uh... yeah," Dani conceded.

"Did he pay you to bring me this shit? What a dumb bastard." He studied the paper for a moment longer, then continued, "This is great. Good guy, Randy."

Evelyn had a hard time keeping up with all of these conflicting statements.

He gave Dani a smile. "Thanks for this. I've been aching for a new tune to play. Or, I guess it's an old one, actually. Heh." He spared Noah a glance and shrugged one shoulder. "Sorry about the nose. But hey, any consolation, you don't really need it. Anyway, you guys stop by Paulman's some night and I'll play it for you, yeah? Tell Randy thanks for me." His final door slam was successful.

Dani stared at the closed door for a beat, then turned to goggle at her squadmates. "...What just happened?"

"He broge by fuggig dose," Noah lamented.

"Yeah... Hold on, I'll use one of those stimpacks we found," Evelyn said as she shrugged her pack off and began rooting through it. She offered him a clean handkerchief, which quickly became bloodsoaked, before fishing one of the syringes from a hard plastic case. Dani's hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"Wait. We need to save those for emergencies, or we won't have any left to bring back to th—" she stopped herself. "...Home."

"...Dice save," Noah couldn't help but mutter.

"Oh, hush. I'm sorry, but it's not like it's life threatening, and we need to conserve as much as we possibly can."

Noah shook his head, bloody handkerchief still clutched to his face. "S'okay. I udderstad. I'll jusd be disfigured for life. Doh big deal."

"Worth it for a handful of bottlecaps, though, right?" Dani quipped.

That got a laugh out of him, though the groan that followed indicated that laughing wasn't a very good idea right now. "You're brudal, Hardy."

Evelyn returned the syringe to its case and re-donned her pack. "I'll bandage you up when we get back to the hotel, okay?"

"Yeah, fide. Led's jusd go ged our bodey. I godda sid dowd."

"Our buddy?" Evelyn asked, cocking her head in confusion.

"Our bodey. ...Bodey! Our boddlecabs! Oh, fuhg you guys," he finished when his squadmates could no longer contain their laughter.

They started making their way back to the inn, the women flanking Noah this time in case he started to feel dizzy. But a broken nose couldn't stop him from getting the last word.

"You bedder hope they have dice, big beds ad this place, 'cause we cad odly afford two roobs ad I'b dot sharig with either of you cacklig heds."

That gave Evelyn pause. Shit. Why hadn't she realized the implications of his "enough for a couple of rooms" statement earlier?! But Dani just smiled.

"What, like Evie and I haven't shared a room before? I'm more worried about you slipping into a coma during the night. You didn't even _try_ to block, did you?"

Evelyn considered that while her squadmates continued to bicker back and forth. True, they had shared a room several times... as children. But sleepovers where you read comics together and gossiped all night while eating sweet rolls you'd stolen from the cafeteria were one thing, and this was another thing entirely. ...Wasn't it? Or was she reading way too much into it?

 _Wouldn't be the first time._ _Won't be the last, either._

Evelyn spent the rest of their walk contemplating how a single facet of her personality could be such an insufferable asshole.

==#==

Randy was waiting for them when they reentered the Mercury. He didn't seem at all surprised that Noah was sporting a broken nose. In fact, he said he would take it as proof of delivery. He opened his pants, out came the bag of bottle caps, and they had their pay. He took his leave soon after, but not before extending them the same invitation to Paulman's, which he apparently owned. That at least explained his abundance of caps, Evelyn thought. As the owner of the only bar in town he must've been raking them in.

Evelyn had wanted to ask him about Manny. What had happened to him? Why did he look the way he did? How was he even _alive_? He'd mentioned being six times their age—that would make him a hundred and twenty years old. Even accounting for exaggeration, that was _old._ People in the vault tended to live into their sixties, perhaps their seventies if they were healthy and lucky. She'd recognized, though, that it was a question in the same vein as asking what a "cap" was. It would only show their ignorance and rouse suspicion. They needed to wait until they found someone they could trust, and ask _them_ what the hell made a ghoul, and how to prevent it from happening to themselves.

God, she hoped it didn't come from sunburns.

It turned out that Noah was right; their earnings were enough for two basic rooms, with six caps left over. Evelyn browsed the menu options while Dani and a still-grumbling Noah went to book their rooms.

The restaurant's fare was... exotic, but very limited. Chipmunk and weasel featured heavily, as well as something called a "tato". Most of it was outside of their current price range, however, and while Evelyn wasn't above the application of a five finger discount, the thought of eating weasel really didn't appeal to her. Besides, they still had plenty of rations. But something at the bottom of the faded menu board caught her eye and she craned her neck to try to decipher it.

"Anything look good?" Dani's voice sounded about an inch from Evelyn's ear and startled her so badly that she knocked her knee against a nearby stool. She hopped in place for several moments, clutching her knee and producing a series of very unladylike squeals.

Dani apologized profusely while Noah laugh-groaned behind her. Evelyn was feeling less and less sorry for him.

==#==

"It's fine. I'm fine," Evelyn repeated for the third time as they picked at their rations, seated around what was becoming their regular table. The proprietor didn't have any problem with them eating their own food inside, considering they'd already paid for their rooms.

"Interesting how you're so concerned about her knee, but you didn't bat an eye when I had blood streaming down my face," Noah observed around a mouthful of Salisbury steak. His nose was now bandaged and allowed for a bit of airflow, though he still sounded much more nasal than usual. He also had the beginnings of a spectacular bruise forming below both of his eyes, and all of this on top of his sunburn. All-in-all, he was looking pretty rough for his first day out of the vault.

Dani colored a bit at his accusation, causing the butterflies that resided in Evelyn's stomach to take flight. "That's because I'm not the one who broke your nose, silly," she fussed. Noah gave a noncommittal hum and continued to eat, though there was a distinct smirk on his battered face.

After eating they lounged around for a while, discussing their plans for the following day in hushed tones (and after the incident with Randy, their hushed tones were perhaps overly-hushed, which led to everyone having to repeat themselves a lot in an increasingly irritated manner). It was decided that, in the morning, they would explore the town and try to make some contacts, both for recon purposes and for help or information on their dinosaur problem. They also decided it wouldn't hurt to try to find some more work (they would need money for new clothes), though Noah qualified this with an assertion that if a job led them to any more irate townsfolk, it was Dani's turn to deal with them.

It was around 5 when Evelyn started nodding off in her chair and Dani suggested that they all turn in. It had been a long, exhausting day, both physically and emotionally, and they were all ready for it to end, despite the early hour. They trudged up the stairs and, after agreeing to meet Noah in the restaurant the following morning, split up to go to their separate rooms.

The rooms were very spartan. Theirs housed a single bedside table, the bed itself, a chair whose back had broken off so that it was now a stool with a few jagged points at the back, and a cracked mirror which hung crookedly on the wall. The bed was indeed big enough for two, but it was only a bare mattress laid upon a rickety wooden bed frame, with no sheets or blankets of any kind. Evelyn tried not to think about probable sources for the many stains, or of the sorts of people that had likely slept here before them. She, of course, failed in her attempt. Then Dani set down her pack and started shucking her armor and suddenly nothing was quite so important to Evelyn as fussing with her own hair in the mirror and trying not to think about what was happening behind her.

That proved difficult, considering the mirror gave her a pretty decent view of it—which was entirely unintentional of course.

 _Yeah. Who knew mirrors worked that way?_

"Shut it," Evelyn muttered under her breath.

"Hmm?" Dani asked, now clothed in what she referred to as her "sleepytime suit" (which was really just another vault jumpsuit).

"Oh, uh, nothing, I just... nothing," was Evelyn's quick-witted response.

She watched as a strange smile ghosted across Dani's features. It almost appeared coy, but Evelyn shook the thought off, sure it was just her imagination running wild, as per usual.

"Right. Well, go ahead and get ready for bed," Dani said, fishing around in her pack and pulling out a toothbrush, toothpaste and a water bottle.

She was halfway through brushing when she noticed Evelyn hadn't moved an inch. Her eyes lit up with equal parts amusement and exasperation. She motioned for Evelyn to remove her pack, which she did, though not without some hesitation. Then, Dani stepped forward and began helping her to remove her armor, toothbrush dangling from the side of her mouth all the while. When Evelyn was down to her jumpsuit, Dani grabbed the zipper and nearly gave her a heart attack before she batted the "helping" hands away. Dani just giggled and went back to brushing, though she turned her back to give Evelyn some much-needed privacy.

It took some time and a lot of glances over her shoulder to make sure Dani's back was still turned, but Evelyn was eventually clothed, brushed, and ready for bed. "Umm, do you care which side you sleep on?" she asked.

"Nope, not really. But you always sleep on the left, right?" Dani paused, then adjusted her choice of words. "I mean, you always sleep on the left side, correct?"

Evelyn blinked. That was true, but how did Dani know that? "Uh—yeah, I do."

Dani smiled. "I remember from when we were kids," she said, answering Evelyn's unasked question.

That seemed like pretty useless information to hold onto for so many years, but the fact that Dani _had_ held onto it made the corners of Evelyn's mouth twitch into a shy smile.

"This'll be fun!" Dani said, flopping down on her side of the bed and stretching out. "Too bad we don't have any Unstoppables or Grognak to read, then it'd be just like old times, huh?"

"Um, yeah," Evelyn conceded. She hesitated only slightly before taking a seat on the bed, all too aware of how rigid her posture was, but unable to force herself to relax. Her hands clenched and unclenched in her lap and she kept her eyes trained on them, hating that she felt this way. Hating that no matter what she told Dani, it _wasn't_ like old times, not at all.

She'd always liked Dani, but it wasn't until her mid-teens, when she'd started to question whether she was really cut out to be a scout, that her... _romantic_ feelings for Dani had developed.

 _Yeah, think about the moment you fell in love with her, that's a great way to calm yourself down. Not awkward at all,_ the voice goaded.

The short nails biting into her palms were becoming painful when she felt Dani shift on the mattress and a familiar weight settled on her shoulder. "Hey. If you're uncomfortable with this, I can go bunk with Noah. I can always smother him with something if he starts snoring."

Evelyn could hear the smile in her voice. She sighed. "No, I'm... I'll be fine. I'm just not used to..." God, she was burning up. She didn't know how to finish her sentence, so she left it hanging there like a train over a blown-out bridge.

The room was quiet for a moment, though Evelyn could hear noises drifting up from the restaurant below. Then Dani shifted again, crawling forward to perch next to Evelyn on the edge of the bed. She didn't touch her again, didn't even try to make eye contact, but when Evelyn sneaked a glance at her she had this serene smile on her lips that somehow made Evelyn feel like everything would be okay. Some of her tension slipped away and she let out a slow breath.

"Do you trust me?"

The question was so out-of-the-blue that it took Evelyn a long time to process it. "I—yeah, of course I do," she finally stammered.

She was treated with a flash of blue eyes and a soft smile. "Good." Then Dani retreated back to her side of the bed, rolling to get there rather than standing or crawling. The action was so very Dani that Evelyn couldn't help laughing a little.

"You don't ever have to be uncomfortable around me, Evie."

"...I know."

It took Evelyn another minute to settle down, but when she did, Dani rolled onto her side and turned off the light. It still wasn't dark, per se, given that it was still daylight outside, but the building and walkway above them paired with the the thick coating of dirt on their window only allowed a dim glow to seep in.

It was hot, so the lack of covers didn't bother her, but the lack of a pillow prevented her from getting comfortable on her back. She rolled onto her side and curled an arm under her head. That was better. But now she could see Dani's form outlined in the low light, lying in almost the same position, facing away from her. She forced her eyes closed, not wanting to be a creep and stare, but unbidden thoughts cropped up, as they often did for her. Thoughts of what it would feel like to scoot forward just a bit—to pull Dani in close and snuggle her face into the crook of her neck and fall asleep like that.

Her face was on fire by the time she put a stop to the (admittedly tame) fantasy. She was in the middle of thoroughly berating herself when Dani's voice rang out.

"Evie?"

She swallowed. "Yeah?"

"You know you can talk to me about anything, right?"

Evelyn was quiet for so long that Dani rolled over to look at her, presumably to check that she hadn't fallen asleep. Their eyes met in the gloom and Evelyn's heart crawled up into her throat.

"Yeah, I know," she managed to choke out around the misplaced organ.

Dani nodded and Evelyn didn't have to be able to see her mouth to know she was smiling. "Okay," she said, and she rolled back over.

It was some time before Evelyn fell asleep.

==#==

Two gunshots, in quick succession. _Bang-bang_. A deep, vibrant red spreading out from the bullet wounds. A screamed question. A harsh response. Another gunshot. Another blooming flower of crimson.

Evelyn watched the events play out exactly as she had the last time: motionless. She didn't do anything, not until Bloody Shirt had finished all of his friends, then turned toward her squadmates. A sick feeling pooled in her gut, but she pulled the trigger and watched the spray of gore that indicated she'd hit her mark. All was silent.

Then she watched, still motionless, as one by one the fallen men stood and turned toward her.

The right side of Bloody Shirt's head was gone, and chunks of bone and gray matter stained the rest of his body. He stared at her with his one remaining eye, saying nothing.

Her eyes flicked to Leader, peppered with bullet holes. He spoke, in his strangely proper way. "You could have stopped him, you know. I didn't have to die. It was a simple shot—you hit him in one attempt. I didn't have to die."

She felt a heavy weight press down on her chest, making it hard to breathe. Machete Man spoke next. "Ya didn't even try to help us. Didn't do a fuckin' thing!"

Sack Head grunted. "S'amatter, we ain't worth your time? Our lives ain't worth a shit so long as your crew comes out safe?"

Evelyn's throat was closing up. She couldn't breathe. She stared at the three of them down the barrel of her still-raised pistol.

...Three?

Someone grabbed her, violently flipping her onto her back. Her pistol slipped from her hands. Bloody Shirt loomed over her, straddling her, gripping her throat with his left hand while he probed his shattered skull with his right, assessing the damage. She recoiled as a thick, warm liquid splashed onto her face and ran down into her hair.

"What, kitten, you afraid of a little blood?"

The smell of it was thick in the air. But she couldn't breathe, so how...?

"Maybe ya shoulda thought of that before ya _burst my fuckin' head open_ ," he hissed, bringing his slick right hand down to join his left around her throat.

The motion must have torn something loose, because she felt a moist and spongy glob land on her cheek. She gagged. The shock of it freed her from her paralyzed state, and she brought her hands up to claw at his, but they were solid as stone.

"Nasty, ain't it? Nasty, nasty, business... and ya didn't even give me a chance to explain myself. 'Cause who needs reason when you've got a gun in your hand, right?"

A gun!

She scrabbled around on the ground, squeaking when her knuckles met cool metal. She raised her weapon, pressed it against the still-intact side of his face.

His eye darted to her gun, and he smiled a truly horrific smile.

He tsked and brought his face in so close that droplets of spittle misted hers as he spoke. "Ya can't hurt me anymore, kitten. I'm already dead."

She tried to pull the trigger, but found she no longer had the strength. She was dying. Her vision was tunneling, her focus shrinking to the ruined face of the man she had killed. Her final breath was expelled as a sob.

==#==

" _Evie? Evie!_ "

Someone was calling her, but their voice was coming from far off. She tried to call back, to let them know where she was, but her throat wouldn't work.

Curious.

After pondering her predicament, she realized that her throat wasn't the problem, it was her chest. It felt strange. Heavy and solid, as thought it were filled with concrete, but also empty. The thought niggled at her mind. It didn't really make sense, did it? How could something be full and empty at the same time? It was like a riddle. She loved riddles!

She was about to begin puzzling it out, but her train of thought was derailed when she realized the voice was still talking. It was a familiar voice, so she forced herself to listen, to try to make out the words.

" _Breathe, Evie!_ "

Oh, so _that_ was the problem.

She drew in a huge, shuddering breath. Her lungs burned, but she sucked in as much oxygen as she could handle, then coughed it out and repeated the process. Her eyes shot open and the world came into focus.

The first thing she noticed was that she wasn't in her bedroom. Memories of the previous day (or perhaps it was still the same day?) flashed across her mind in an instant and made her stomach roil. Then, she noticed Dani kneeling over her with an almost palpable look of relief on her face. She didn't notice her own tears until a second later. She tried to sit up but found she didn't have the strength, so she hid her face in the crook of her arm, trying to hide her shame even as she heaved and sobbed.

Dani seemed to understand that she needed some space and sat back, but she didn't look away. She had a hand pressed over her heart, her eyes were misty and her breathing was labored. Evelyn frowned and forced herself to calm down so that she could check if Dani was okay. She wiped at her cheeks and drew in some deep breaths (in through the nose, out through the mouth, like she'd been taught). As soon as she felt her voice could be trusted, she spoke.

"Are—you alright?" she asked, her voice cracking.

Dani let out a short, humorless laugh. "Am _I_ alright? Jesus, Evie, I thought you were dead!"

Evelyn's eyebrows shot up. "I... what?"

Dani shook her head, clasping both hands around Evelyn's left. Even Evelyn's butterflies didn't have the oomph to take off right now, so her stomach settled for warm fuzzies instead.

"You were hyperventilating, and I tried to wake you, but then you just _stopped breathing_ and I..." she paused here to sniffle and wipe the excess moisture from her eyes. "Shit, I swear you took ten years off my life. I've never been so scared."

Evelyn was torn between guilt at having caused Dani distress, and a twisted delight at the fact that her own well-being had such an impact on the blonde. "S-sorry," Evelyn croaked. "I had a... bad dream."

"A bad dream," Dani echoed quietly.

Evelyn braced herself for the inevitable questions—questions that she wasn't sure she could face. Not now. Maybe not ever.

Dani drew in a breath, opened her mouth, and... closed it. She looked down. Clenched her jaw. Squeezed Evelyn's hand a little. When she looked back up her crystal blue eyes were so warm, and she was doing that closed-mouth smile of hers that showed off the dimple on her left cheek.

"I'm so glad you're okay."

Evelyn's jaw dropped and she dazedly acknowledged that, yes, it _was_ possible for her to fall even harder for this woman.

Dani giggled and wiped at her eyes again. "Jeez, my heart's still going a mile a minute."

Evelyn silently agreed, though she thought it was probably for a different reason.

Then Dani gave a soft "Oh!" and stood from the bed, crouching next to her pack and rummaging around in it before pulling out a bulging handkerchief. Evelyn took the opportunity to clear her own face of tears and to attempt to sit up.

"Here, let me help," Dani said, hurrying over and offering her hand. Evelyn took it and soon they were sitting side by side.

"What's that?" Evelyn asked, nodding toward the handkerchief.

"This? Mmm..." she made a show of considering the question, tapping her lips with the index finger of her free hand. When she shifted her gaze to Evelyn, she had a playful twinkle in her eye. "Close your eyes."

Evelyn raised an eyebrow, but Dani just waited patiently. This was a ploy to cheer her up, she knew, and she wasn't really in the mood for it, but she couldn't bring herself to turn Dani down. Not when she looked so hopeful and...

 _Cute is the word you're looking for._

Alright, so she was playing along. She closed her eyes and waited expectantly. She heard Dani fiddling with the handkerchief, unwrapping the whatever-it-was.

"Open your mouth."

After a brief internal struggle wherein she managed to convince herself that Dani wouldn't put anything disgusting into her mouth without at least warning her about it first, she complied. Something soft and sweet was slipped into her mouth and she chewed by instinct. It was good! It was also incredibly familiar. Her eyes popped open.

"Where'd you find a sweet roll?"

Dani flashed a conspiratorial grin. "I took a leaf from your book; snuck into the cafeteria last night and swiped a couple for us. I figured we might need something to cheer us up out here."

That brought a smile to Evelyn's face. "Aha! See, my evil plan is working already," said Dani. She handed the roll with a small chunk missing to Evelyn, keeping the other for herself.

Evelyn couldn't help noticing that there were only two. No sweet roll for Noah. The observation cheered her almost as much as the treat. She wondered if she should feel guilty about that, but dismissed the notion quickly. What Noah didn't know wouldn't hurt him, right?

"Thanks," she mumbled.

"You're welcome."

They lapsed into silence as they both chewed on the familiar treat. It was so sweet of Dani to think of bringing them. But then, Evelyn wasn't surprised. Sweet was Dani's MO, after all.

Unfortunately, it wasn't long before details of the nightmare started creeping back to her, shattering the glass bubble of calm in which Dani had encased them. Evelyn found herself shaking a little bit, despite the comfort the roll and Dani's presence brought. It had all been so vivid... and although she knew it hadn't been real, that she was in no danger of being strangled by a dead man, it didn't make the whole thing any less disturbing. She'd killed a man. Taken a life. And she'd purposely stopped herself from saving at least one life, to _conserve ammunition._ She hadn't even considered that before now, but apparently her subconscious had.

She set the remaining half of her sweet roll down on the bedside table. She hoped Dani wouldn't take offense, but she didn't have the stomach for it anymore.

"You wanna talk about it?" Dani asked in a soft voice.

Evelyn's eyes darted to Dani's, then away just as quickly. The funny thing was, reluctant as she'd been only moments before, Evelyn _did_ want to talk about it. It was eating her up inside; the nightmare was proof of that. But she knew if she started talking, she'd start crying again, and she felt she'd already embarrassed herself enough for one night.

Dani scooted closer until their shoulders were touching. "Hey," she murmured, waiting until Evelyn hesitantly met her gaze and held it. "It's okay to be upset, you know? This has been a helluva day. I don't expect you to be fine. I know I'm not."

Evelyn swallowed thickly while Dani continued to nibble at her sweet roll.

"...You don't have to say anything if you don't want to, just know that I'm here for you, okay? If you ever wanna talk or cry or whatever—I don't mind."

Evelyn felt her lower lip tremble. She considered Dani's words, and decided the safest response was a nod. This proved to be a grave miscalculation on her part, because the motion dislodged a tear, and of course the other tears all lined up behind the first one, but somebody pushed and it turned into a mob and suddenly they were flooding out all willy-nilly and before she knew it she was sobbing into Dani's shoulder and she wasn't sure how _that_ had happened because she didn't remember hugging Dani and she was pretty sure she'd have remembered something like that but here they were, hugging anyway, and she was getting Dani's jumpsuit all wet with tears and probably snot and drool and, God, this was not the way she had planned for this night to go at all.

Dani rubbed her back and whispered things like, "It's okay, let it all out," while Evelyn cried and cried.

It was ten minutes or more before she was able to regain control of herself. By that time she had a wicked sinus headache going, but she felt a lot better already.

She reluctantly broke their embrace, grimacing when she noticed that she'd been right about Dani's jumpsuit. She brought a hand up to cover her nose and mouth because she was sure she looked disgusting, but Dani only smiled kindly. She produced the handkerchief she'd used to wrap up the sweet rolls and, after shaking it out, she offered it to Evelyn. Evelyn first used it to wipe Dani's shoulder off (ignoring her protests) before removing the various fluids from her own face.

Dani waited until she was finished, taking the opportunity to eat the last of her own slightly-mangled sweet roll. Their eyes met.

Evelyn sighed and twisted her fingers together. After everything that had transpired between them since they'd awoken she felt a little silly not explaining herself, so she cleared her throat and gathered her thoughts.

"I just... I'm having a hard time with... well, I killed a guy," she blurted.

Dani nodded. She didn't seem thrown by the outburst at all. Well, with the way she could read Evelyn it wasn't surprising that she'd already known the reason for her distress. She met Evelyn's gaze, somehow managing to impart some warmth and comfort to the smaller woman from the eye contact alone.

"You know you saved our asses out there, right? Twice, really, if you count the dinosaur things beforehand... which you totally should."

Evelyn shrugged one shoulder, unfazed by the compliments. She'd only been doing her job in both instances. It didn't make the killing any less nauseating.

"You did what you had to do."

She knew Dani meant well, but that didn't make her words true. Evelyn hadn't _had_ to kill him. She could have shot him in the arm, couldn't she? Or the leg, or virtually anywhere else on his body? He'd been distracted—he hadn't even known she was _there._ She hadn't given him any chance to explain or negotiate. She'd put a bullet in his head without a second thought. Well, now she was having seconds. And thirds, and fourths...

She tried to convey this to Dani, but she was silenced halfway through her soliloquy by a hand on her shoulder. Dani held her gaze and spoke very slowly to her, as if she were explaining that two plus two equals four to a particularly thick-headed child.

"Evie, that man was crazy. He killed his own friends—or, coworkers, or whatever they were—because he _thought_ we _might_ be from a vault. He would have killed me or Noah, maybe both of us, if you hadn't stopped him."

Okay, she couldn't really argue with that. She'd had him pegged as a nut from the start. But just because someone was insane—

"Yes, him being crazy makes it justified."

Evelyn blinked. God, that mind reading thing was spooky sometimes. Dani sighed and sat back. Evelyn immediately missed the contact, but that was silly (and a bit creepy) so she told herself to stop it. Her self didn't listen.

"Okay, look at it this way," Dani began. "Even if he hadn't been crazy; even if he'd just been a lone guy trying to rob us... you remember what Mr. Clark used to say?"

Mr. Clark had been their instructor in the vault's improvised shooting range. He'd also taught them things like battle strategy and how to move silently—all things combat related, basically.

"Well, he said a lot of things," Evelyn hedged.

Dani snorted. "Yeah, but more specifically, he used to say that when you point a gun at someone, you do it with intent to kill. It doesn't matter if you're actually trying to intimidate or bluff or whatever... if you point your weapon at someone you're threatening their life, and you'd better be prepared to face the consequences."

Evelyn nodded. She remembered the speech. It was one that had been repeated to them many times, for good reason.

"He was threatening our lives, Evie. You protected us." The hand was back on her shoulder and her heartbeat quickened to a steady allegro. "I'm sorry you have to go through this—I'm sorry Noah and I were both chickenlivers and the burden ended up falling to you—but I'm glad that you were strong enough to do what had to be done. Because it _did_ have to be done, no matter what you keep telling yourself."

Her eyes were burning again. How was it possible that her body could produce _more_ tears after all of that? Then Dani pulled her into another embrace, and she was distracted by the sudden heat creeping up her neck.

"Thank you," whispered Dani.

She didn't respond at first, but that felt kind of insulting, so after a few seconds she gingerly wrapped her arms around Dani and returned the hug. It was nice, much nicer than the one they'd shared earlier, which she'd been far too distressed to enjoy. That is, it was nice until Dani started giggling. She tried to pull back, but Dani held her firm.

"What's so funny?" Evelyn mumbled into a tangle of thick, blonde curls.

"Nothing, just... I can actually _feel_ you blushing right now," Dani snickered.

Which, of course, made Evelyn blush even harder, which made Dani laugh even more, which was really cute but also annoying. Evelyn attacked Dani's sides, feeling justified in taking advantage of a known weakness under such outrageous circumstances. That did the trick and forced Dani to let her go. It also made her shriek loudly, which was probably disturbing to their neighbors, but Evelyn didn't care about them right now.

"N-nooo, stop, I'm sorry! Mercy!" Dani choked out amidst laughter and squeals.

When Evelyn decided she'd been punished enough (which took another minute or two, and that was only _partially_ because Dani was so adorable) she sat back and folded her arms while Dani caught her breath.

"You turd," Dani said between aftershock-giggles.

Evelyn frowned and raised her hands again, wiggling her fingers threateningly. But instead of being scared, Dani was sporting a predatory grin that made Evelyn very nervous. She was just starting to back away when Dani pounced on her and began exacting her revenge.

It was very unfair, Evelyn decided, because Dani was so much bigger than her that she could—and shamelessly did—hold her down with one hand while she tickled her unprotected armpits (Evelyn's own weak spot) with the other. Dani only stopped when Evelyn threatened to wet the bed.

"Fine," said Dani, her eyes sparkling with mirth. "But only because I know you'll really do it."

"I was seven!" Evelyn said defensively.

Dani released her arms but didn't back away, and it was only then that Evelyn realized how close their faces were. If her heart hadn't already been racing from the tickling, well, it would've been now. She felt like she was getting lost in Dani's eyes—almost like when she'd been staring up into the endless sky.

When Dani started moving closer, Evelyn went rigid and her gaze flicked to Dani's lips, so full and pink. She wondered, not for the first time, what they might feel like. She wondered (not quite daring to hope) if she was about to find out.

Well, it turned out she was, but not in the way she'd imagined so many times. Instead of meeting her lips, Dani pressed a kiss to her forehead. It was a pretty long kiss, though. Like, at least two or three seconds. Definitely enough time to recognize that she'd been exactly right about how soft those lips would be.

When Dani pulled away, Evelyn continued to stare up at her, wide-eyed and, she was sure, blushing brightly. But Dani didn't show any signs of discomfort or embarrassment, she only smiled and rolled over to lie next to Evelyn. She consulted her pipboy.

"It's only 10:40 right now. Do you feel up to sleeping for a few more hours, or do you want to stay up for a while?"

Evelyn had to swallow a few times before she trusted herself to speak, and by the end of the process she still wasn't sure what her answer should be. On the one hand she was exhausted, even moreso than she'd been before she went to sleep, no doubt from the nightmare and all the crying that had followed. On the other hand, she was afraid that if she slept she would _dream_ again. She settled on, "I don't want to keep you up."

Dani rolled to face her with a blonde eyebrow raised. "Evie, I'm not going to go to sleep if you're going to be lying there terrified. What kind of a friend would I be?"

"My best friend," was Evelyn's automatic, and terribly embarrassing answer.

But Dani didn't laugh, she only smiled her gap-toothed smile, and Evelyn fell a little more in love with her. "Yeah, well, you're _my_ best friend, so I'm not gonna sleep until you're ready."

It was the first time they'd used the term in years—not that it hadn't been true, just that it hadn't really needed to be said. But it felt good to hear it, anyway. The firm declaration and show of selfless loyalty (because Dani was obviously just as tired as her) was enough to bring peace to Evelyn's troubled heart, at least for the night. She pushed her fears away and took a deep breath.

"I, um, I think I'm ready now," she mumbled.

Dani eyed her suspiciously. "Hmm... really? You're sure you don't need me to tickle you for a while longer? I'm reasonably sure you wouldn't be the first person to wet this bed."

The truth of that made Evelyn want to grimace, but she found herself laughing instead. Dani just kept smiling until she was finished. "Really, I'm sure." Dani nodded, then asked if she wanted the light on or off.

"Off, please."

"Mmkay," said Dani, turning to click it off as requested. It was well and truly dark now.

Evelyn wasn't sure whether Dani was still facing her or not until she spoke again and she could feel the faint whisper of her breath, which of course set her heart racing again. Dammit. She wouldn't get any sleep for an entirely different reason if this kept up. "Do you feel a little better?"

She took a moment to think about it before speaking. "I... still feel weird, and I still feel sick when I imagine it, but... yeah, talking about it helped. And just, y'know..."

She wanted to tell Dani how much it meant to her to know she had her support. Just the fact that Dani _cared_ about her so much, even if it wasn't in the same way that Evelyn cared about Dani, made everything infinitely more bearable. Even the things that made her want to curl up in a corner and stay there forever. Of course, she'd already known that Dani cared about her, but it never hurt to be reminded. Also, the kiss had been nice. But she couldn't bring herself to say any of that, so she just trailed off into silence.

"Well, good," Dani said after a few moments. "I'm glad I could help. And if you ever wanna talk again, or have a tickle fight rematch... I'm here."

Evelyn chuffed and smiled into the darkness. "I know. Thanks."

She heard Dani roll onto her other side, and her pulse slowed.

"G'night, Evie."

"Night."


End file.
